Sri Lanka will restart flights from the northern Jaffna peninsula to India from next month.
Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Sri Lankan Aviation Minister has said that this move would help in supporting the island country’s tourism industry and also ease the Sri Lankan economic instability.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is planning to witness 800,000 tourists during the remaining months of this year.
Nimal Siripala de Silva said that thePalaly airport in northern Jaffna peninsula is all set to recommence flights to India starting from next month. However, the minister did not stipulate any fixed date.
The minister said after inspecting the airport that restarting the flights would definitely improve tourism and help Sri Lanka get over the financial woes.
The economic disaster in Sri Lanka has led to aseverescarcity of vitalstuffs like food, cooking gas, medicines, various types of fuel, match sticks and even toilet paper. Sri Lankans had no other option but to wait in lines for hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas.
The current runway can only house 75-seater flights, and thus, it needs to be stretched, said the aviation minister. He expectssupportfrom India for the improvementof the runway.
In October 2019, the airport was named the Jaffna international airport. The first international flight Chennai landing in the airport was from Chennai.
